The invention relates to a freight container with two fittings, which are disposed at those two ends of the container that are opposite each other along a first axis, for engaging locking members provided on a container receiving surface. Either fitting has openings for simultaneously engaging a pair of locking members provided on a vehicle loading area at a spacing of substantially 280 mm in the direction of a second axis, which extends perpendicularly to the first axis. The centre spacing between openings of those two fittings, which are opposite each other in the direction of the first axis, is substantially 2259 mm.
A freight container of this type is known from European Patent Application 0,401,639. As explained therein, loading areas of railway cars or trucks are provided with spigots and, respectively, twistlocks in a specific arrangement which includes a plurality of locations where two adjacent locking members are spaced by approx. 280 mm. In the prior art, this fact is utilised for securing small or middle- size containers which have no standard dimensions and therefore cannot be coupled at all four corners to locking members; due to being fixed at a total of four points, they may yet be fastened in such a way that they are secured against tilting.
In the known freight container, the two double or multiple fittings are rigidly mounted on two opposite container sides and extend beyond the dimension of the tank. In a skillful arrangement and by omitting individual stanchions, several of such containers may be arranged on one flat which in turn can be provided with standardised corner fittings. However, the known small or medium-size containers, due to their protruding fittings, cannot be received in a container frame such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,085.